Marketers in the top 14 consumer categories spend $300 Billion annually to reach consumers through promotion ($228BN) and advertising ($97BN). The inefficiency of the paper-based process results in a higher-than-necessary cost per redemption for marketers and causes many coupon users, frustrated by the time and effort required, to simply give up. Today, shoppers must sort through the hundreds of paper coupons they receive in newspapers, magazines and the mail, cut out the coupons that are of interest, store them, remember to take them to the grocery store, and finally redeem them by handing the paper coupons to a cashier at checkout. The billions of paper coupons ultimately redeemed are handled by up to 8 pairs of hands before they are finally routed back through a clearinghouse to the manufacturer. 76% of the United States population uses coupons from Sunday newspaper inserts, retailers' fliers, magazines, in/on packages and online coupons, each year. (84% of females and 68% of males use coupons). In 2005, 323 billion paper coupons were distributed however less than 1% was redeemed. Despite the problems associated with paper coupons marketers continue use them because coupons are an effective promotional tool with very predictable costs and results and no proven paperless replacement.